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> and his coworkers discover he said this. how and why? we all hold crazy opinions. as long as “Frank” has a proven record of successfully working with women,

by kmlx 5y ago

> and his coworkers discover he said this. how and why? we all hold crazy opinions. as long as “Frank” has a proven record of successfully working with women, what exactly is the problem? throughout my career i’ve been working with some crazy individuals. their opinions were expressed in non office settings. then at work they were basically the antithesis of what they were preaching in private. the gist is easy to understand: as long as your opinions don’t affect your work, why should anything like this matter?

colpabar 5y ago
I think the difference here is that in this case, there is a tangible record of what was said outside of work, rather than a story about how someone said something outside of work. I'm sure there are countless examples of employees wishing that whatever their crazy coworker said after work was recorded or written down somewhere so they could report it, but that wasn't the case until social media came along and gave everyone a chance to post things online. In the example, Frank probably wouldn't have kept a written record of his opinions precisely because he knew it'd probably get him in trouble if anyone else found it. This doesn't really answer your question of "why does it matter," but I bet that if some of the crazy individuals you worked with had posted their opinions somewhere that people could see them, they would have been fired too.
colinmhayes 5y ago
> how and why? Someone on twitter tells them?
Hermitian909 5y ago
> > and his coworkers discover he said this. > how and why? My post specifically mentions how social media makes this difficult, so that's one way. Rumor is another, but that has existed for as long as we've had workplaces and has not had the same effects, so I presume most people are worried about, again, social media. > as long as “Frank” has a proven record of successfully working with women, what exactly is the problem? Feelings are not always rational, knowing he holds those opinions will make many people viscerally uncomfortable and they will act on it. Whether you think they should react that way, people do, moralizing the issue doesn't solve it. If you disagree with that, I don't think it's a difference we can resolve here. I also think whether Frank has had a proven record of successfully working with women isn't something we can know, and I think others share this view. For example if Frank is in a hiring position he may have passed on female candidates because of his views, or he may not have. No one can verify the details. Frank knows we can't verify the details. Frank may only be acting on his views when he's confident no one can credibly accuse him. This all sounds overwrought, but people really do get caught in these game theory thought experiment quagmires wondering whether Frank or someone like him have or will hurt someone and decide "I don't want to deal with this person". Which leads back to the social dysfunction I described above.

by kmlx 5y ago

colpabar 5y ago

I think the difference here is that in this case, there is a tangible record of what was said outside of work, rather than a story about how someone said something outside of work. I'm sure there are countless examples of employees wishing that whatever their crazy coworker said after work was recorded or written down somewhere so they could report it, but that wasn't the case until social media came along and gave everyone a chance to post things online. In the example, Frank probably wouldn't have kept a written record of his opinions precisely because he knew it'd probably get him in trouble if anyone else found it. This doesn't really answer your question of "why does it matter," but I bet that if some of the crazy individuals you worked with had posted their opinions somewhere that people could see them, they would have been fired too.

colinmhayes 5y ago

> how and why? Someone on twitter tells them?

Hermitian909 5y ago

> > and his coworkers discover he said this. > how and why? My post specifically mentions how social media makes this difficult, so that's one way. Rumor is another, but that has existed for as long as we've had workplaces and has not had the same effects, so I presume most people are worried about, again, social media. > as long as “Frank” has a proven record of successfully working with women, what exactly is the problem? Feelings are not always rational, knowing he holds those opinions will make many people viscerally uncomfortable and they will act on it. Whether you think they should react that way, people do, moralizing the issue doesn't solve it. If you disagree with that, I don't think it's a difference we can resolve here. I also think whether Frank has had a proven record of successfully working with women isn't something we can know, and I think others share this view. For example if Frank is in a hiring position he may have passed on female candidates because of his views, or he may not have. No one can verify the details. Frank knows we can't verify the details. Frank may only be acting on his views when he's confident no one can credibly accuse him. This all sounds overwrought, but people really do get caught in these game theory thought experiment quagmires wondering whether Frank or someone like him have or will hurt someone and decide "I don't want to deal with this person". Which leads back to the social dysfunction I described above.